Death stalks Sesame Street

**It takes a certain type of play to carry off the stage direction: "Enter Death from the wardrobe." After a couple of hours of dreary pseudo poetry, the instruction seems tantalising in its Gothic wackiness. But when Death arrives dressed in what looks like a left-over costume from Sesame Street, we realise that oblivion is going to be the kindest option for both Woman and Scarecrow.

"Die if you're going to. If not, get up!" says Him - short, naturally, for the adulterous "Him Who Made Little of You" - some way into Marina Carr's dirge for lost time. "Hear, hear!" we long to cry. By this point ,Woman, bedridden with a terminal illness, has spent more than enough time lamenting past lovers and the future that awaits her eight children. As her name implies, nothing about Woman's then or now is literal, just tiresomely, metaphorically Symbolic of Opportunity Missed .

Not only is there something nasty in the wardrobe, there's a negligée-clad inquisitor Scarecrow hovering by the headboard. What is this bizarre creation, portrayed with wearying over-emphasis by BrÃ­d Brennan in Ramin Gray's peculiarly staged production? Woman's subconscious? A morphine-induced nightmare? A way for Carr to avoid writing a monologue?

Fiona Shaw, who looks and sounds remarkably well for someone about to meet her Maker, fares best when Carr allows Woman some gallows humour. A particularly amusing recitation of detailed funeral instructions reminds us that this most intense of actresses has a notable aptitude for comedy. It's not enough, though, to stop us wanting to turf Shaw out of bed and settle down for a good snooze ourselves.